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The impact of storage on processing: how is information maintained in working memory?
Evie Vergauwe1, Valérie Camos2, Pierre Barrouillet3
1Department of Cognitive Development, Université de Genève.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|February 26, 2014
Summary
Working memory involves maintaining and processing information. This study shows increased memory load slows processing, with verbal and spatial memory using different maintenance strategies.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Working memory is crucial for cognition, enabling simultaneous information maintenance and processing.
- The exact interplay between maintenance and processing in working memory remains debated.
- The time-based resource-sharing model proposes a bottleneck where these functions alternate.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of increasing working memory load on concurrent processing.
- To explore the relationship between memory maintenance and processing demands.
- To differentiate maintenance mechanisms for verbal and visuospatial information.
Main Methods:
- Conducted 7 experiments manipulating memory load using various memoranda.
- Measured processing times across different tasks under varying memory loads.
- Analyzed the effects of verbal and visuospatial memory items on processing speed.
Main Results:
- Processing times linearly increased by approximately 50 ms per memory item, indicating a fast refresh rate.
- Attention is required for maintaining both verbal and visuospatial information.
- Verbal information utilizes an additional domain-specific maintenance mechanism beyond attention, unlike spatial information.
Conclusions:
- Working memory maintenance and processing are not entirely independent and likely share resources.
- The findings support a time-based resource-sharing model with specific refresh rates.
- Asymmetric maintenance mechanisms exist for verbal and visuospatial information within working memory.
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